Prescription drug pregabalin reclassified
A prescription medicine linked to dozens of deaths in Northern Ireland over the past couple of years is to be made a class C drug from today.
There will now be prosecutions and penalties for those caught illegally possessing or supplying pregabalin – an anti-epileptic drug that is also known by the brand name Lyrica or the street name Bud.
According to a report on the BBC, there were 33 pregabalin-linked deaths in Northern Ireland in 2017 alone, and the province has the highest prescription rate for pregabalin within the UK.
The Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs made the recommendation to reclassify the drug in a letter to ministers in January 2016.
The letter cited warnings from the Health and Social Care Board, which highlighted “significant misuse and abuse” of the drug, which is also used to relieve chronic pain.
It is illegal to have class C drugs without a prescription and illegal to supply or sell them to others.